Book before

Two-day masterclass 26 February 2010

24 - 25 March 2010 to receive your
Rydges World Square, Sydney early bird discount

Information Architecture and

Collaborative Design
“The design behind the design of successful interactive products” - Iain Barker

Masterclass leader:

Iain Barker Learn from the

Freelance Information Architect, experience of an
IA expert and
User Researcher and discuss your issues
User Experience Architect in an interactive
environment
www.simplerisbetter.wordpress.com

Find out how to

Feedback from previous Ark Group information architecture events:
effectively engage users
in the development
‘Enjoyed workshopping the theory’ - DAFF of an information
architecture
‘Great to meet people with similar roles, challenges, etc, but
with new insights’ - Queensland Treasury Corporation

‘Extremely useful, I cancelled my holiday to go back and apply it!’

- Sydney Catchment Authority

Supported by:

Endorsed by:

Official Media Partners:

Produced by:

ww w. ar kgr oupaustralia.co m .a u
 Please note: Due to
the interactive nature
of this event numbers
are strictly limited

Information Architecture and

Collaborative Design
“The design behind the design of successful interactive products” - Iain Barker

Why is this masterclass relevant to you?

Information architecture is about structuring, organising and labelling information on websites and intranets. It is used to decide
how a site should be structured, what kind of content it should include, and how to accommodate its future growth. Information
architecture is the foundation of successful interactive products; it is the “design behind the design”.

Taking an outside-in approach, this two-day interactive masterclass explains how to effectively engage users in the development
of an information architecture, so they are confident that their products and services will not only meet business requirements, but
also satisfy the real needs of the people that use them.

This course covers topics such as:

ƒƒ Card sorting and other methods of user and stakeholder engagement
ƒƒ Prototyping, usability testing and iterative design
ƒƒ Designing and documenting a robust and flexible information architecture

If you’re in the process of developing something new or fed up with the ad-hoc organic growth of your website, intranet, application
or any other kind of interactive product, this masterclass will prove invaluable!

Who should attend?

ƒƒ Information Architects ƒƒ Web Designers/Architects ƒƒ Knowledge Managers
ƒƒ Data and Technology Architects ƒƒ Chief Information Officers ƒƒ IT/IS Strategy Leaders
ƒƒ Enterprise Architects ƒƒ User Centred Designers ƒƒ IT & IM Strategy Managers
ƒƒ IT Application Managers ƒƒ Records Managers
ƒƒ IT Professionals
ƒƒ Information Managers ƒƒ Usability Managers
ƒƒ Information Systems Managers
ƒƒ eGovernment Professionals ƒƒ Librarians
ƒƒ (Online/Web) Content Managers/
ƒƒ Internet and Intranet Managers ƒƒ User Experience Designers/
ƒƒ Managers of Online Services Architects/Managers Developers/Writers/Authors

About your Iain Barker is a freelance information architect, user researcher and user experience architect.
Masterclass leader: He has over 14 years of experience providing tactical and strategic user centred design
services to enable organisations to create engaging and successful products and services.

Originating from the UK, Iain has conducted work for a wide variety or organisations in
Europe and Australia, including BBC, News Digital Media, United Nation High Commission
for Refugees, Vodafone, NSW Department of Education and Training, BT, Kimberley Clark
Australia, Blake Dawson Waldron, Railcorp, Toyota, Opodo, Coles Myer and Standard Life.

Iain’s experience covers sprawling content-rich intranets, eCommerce sites, web applications,
interactive television services, transactional banking systems, and much more.

He is a passionate advocate of involving users iteratively throughout the design and

development of products and services. He has conducted well over 1,000 user research
sessions.

Iain Barker
Freelance Information Architect,
User Researcher and
User Experience Architect
Iain has been published on the leading interaction design e-zine Boxes and Arrows, and was
Co-author of the Intranet Review Toolkit (http://www.steptwo.com.au/products/irtoolkit/index.
html) that was developed under sponsorship from the Information Architecture Institute.
He has spoken at numerous conferences, and facilitated workshops both in Australia and
internationally.

www.simplerisbetter.wordpress.com
 DAY ONE DAY TWO
Wednesday, 24 March 2010 Thursday, 25 March 2010

8.45 Registration and refreshments 8.45 Registration and refreshments

9.15 Introduction and welcome 9.15 Recap and introduction to day two
Iain will introduce the masterclass objectives and discuss how
the day will proceed. Attendees will have the opportunity to 9.30 Navigation and page layouts
participate in a brief ‘getting to know you’ exercise, so that This session will look at the translation of a structure into a page
everyone is familiar with fellow attendees’ backgrounds and layout, will cover different navigation models and introduces
what they hope to achieve from the masterclass. essential design principles.
ƒƒ Satisfycing
9.30 Putting information architecture in context ƒƒ Information scent
This session will provide a common understanding of ƒƒ Breadcrumbs
information architecture, and will place it within the context of ƒƒ Dynamic and hierarchical structures
related topics such as usability, user-centred design and user
experience. 10.45 Morning refreshments and networking
ƒƒ What is information architecture?
ƒƒ IA, usability, user-centred design and user experience 11.00 Prototyping, usability testing and iterative design
This session will explain how to create and test your prototypes
10.45 Morning refreshments and networking with real users, how to present findings to stakeholders, and
how to iteratively improve your product. Topics will include:
11.00 Creating an information architecture: processes and ƒƒ Prototyping
approaches ƒƒ Usability testing
During this session Iain will discuss the activities involved in ƒƒ Iterative design
creating an information architecture and different
organisational structures. 12.30 Networking lunch
Topics include:
ƒƒ Conducting a content inventory 1.30 IA documentation
ƒƒ “Top down” and “bottom up” approaches This section will discuss different approaches to documenting
ƒƒ Balancing business and user needs your information architecture, including some of the challenges
to conventional approaches presented by development
12.30 Networking lunch techniques such as ‘Agile’.
ƒƒ Drawing sitemaps
1.30 Collaborative design for user and stakeholder ƒƒ Drawing wireframes
engagement ƒƒ Specifications and annotations
This session will introduce a range of techniques that will ƒƒ Creating prototypes
enable you to get user and stakeholder engagement in the
development of an information architecture. This includes 2.45 Afternoon refreshments and networking
design games (such as design the box and metadata games)
and an overview of other user research techniques. 3.00 Putting it all together
During this final session Iain will critique some good and bad
2.45 Afternoon refreshments and networking examples of information architecture, and will open the floor to
any questions arising from the previous two days.
3.00 Getting the structure right
In this session you will learn about different structures for 4.30 Wrap-up and end of masterclass
an information architecture, what makes a good IA and the
iterative process used to come up with one. This session
covers: RECOMMENDED READINGS
ƒƒ Card sorting
ƒƒ Iteratively evolving a proposed information structure What is information architecture?
http://tinyurl.com/IAreading1
4.30 Wrap-up and end of day one
Measuring the success of a classification system
http://tinyurl.com/AIreading2

Information scent. Helping people find the content they want

http://tinyurl.com/IAReading3

Preparing for
Attendees are invited to submit specific information architecture challenges that they would like to have discussed
this masterclass
during the masterclass.

Please email your challenges to arootes@arkgroupasia.com at least two weeks prior to the masterclass. If you
do not want your organisation identified, use a pseudonym such as BigBankCo, or SmallRetailCo to indicate the
industry involved and the size of the organisation.
5 ways to book your place AT this event AG-WEB
Phone: +61 1300 550 662 Fax: Send the completed registration form to +61 1300 550 663
Email: aga@arkgroupasia.com Web: www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au
Post: Send the completed registration form to Ark Group Australia Pty Ltd, Main level, 83 Walker Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060

Information Architecture and Collaborative Design

24 - 25 March 2010, Rydges World Square, Sydney
put your details here:

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Masterclass
o $2395 + 10% GST = $2634.50
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Early Bird (exp:19/02/2010) o Save $200

Not valid with any other offer $2195 + 10% GST = $2414.50
Member Discount (exp:19/02/2010) o Save $300
I am a member of The Information Architecture Institute, AIMIA,
WIPA, IIM, ASTC (NSW, VIC) $2095 + 10% GST = $2304.50

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